


Deciduous

by Kaggath



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Drabbles, SWTOR, prompted drabbles, young Malgus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-06-11 17:31:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15320589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaggath/pseuds/Kaggath
Summary: Prompted drabbles set in the Old Republic





	1. Veradun

**Prompt: You’re a weapon, and weapons don’t weep**

It wasn’t something anyone had actually said to him, but it was implied. Unless dreams counted…

Veradun was a young man. He had yet to grow into his own body when his adoptive father sent him away. Now at night he lay, cold and alone, watching his body change like the weather on the planet of his new home. The electrified air seemed to seep into his blood. The swelling storms billowing like his growing strength. 

He ran his fingers through his hair while he still could. There were Lords…Darths even…who still had a full head of hair, and yet the more Veradun trained and pushed his body, the more it pushed back. He was learning to see it as a show of power, a symbol of pride. Soon it would all be gone.

That wasn’t what was bothering him this night, though. His appearances weren’t much of a concern to him. Tonight, Veradun was angry at himself. The Dark Side fed him power like a holy communion through anger, rage, hate—passion. He would use that power to kill the weakness inside him that bubbled up.

Standing, Veradun began to pace his quarters. The rusty ache of old wounds, the hot sting of new, Veradun drank in the pain. Seeking comfort would only make him weaker. He needed to be strong, powerful. The Dark Side wrapped around him and he let it. He would become a conduit for it, and then it for him. They would become a one, and he would rise up above all others.

Veradun swore that night never again would a tear fall from his face, and as he looked into the mirror the brown of his eyes hinted at the first light of gold.


	2. Eleena

**Prompt: What do you do when there’s no hero in the story? Simple. You kill the monster and crown yourself.**

It took a long time acclimating to the deep silence of long distance flying. Eleena flew for Malgus before, but never distances like this. Back then the silence acted as a short break. A mercy. A quietness she was only afforded on occasion. 

Now, in the expanse of endless vacuum, she finally understood how beings could call space empty. For so long, Eleena stood at Malgus’s side. Planetside, battle to battle, it was easy to miss the absolute vastness of it. In her field of view, just across the transparasteel and endless lightyears away, Eleena could almost see the red spark of Korriban.

It was in her imagination, she knew. It’s impossible to actually see a planetary shine this far out. Still, the red glimmer blinked at her. Watching.

Turning her ship, Eleena left the red spot behind, flying full burn to freedom.


	3. Eleena

**Prompt: How terrible it is, to love something death can touch**

Eleena woke with the sound of blaster fire. 

Gripping the edge of the bed, she listened. Silence, as close as it got on Valor, coated the air. There was only the regular crashing of Veradun’s breath on her neck. Struggling to match his pace, Eleena tried desperately to regulate her breathing.

It was only a nightmare, she told herself. 

Memories bubbled up like an underground spring, but she pushed back, plugging up the leaks in her composure like a sinking boat. It always got worse at night. During the day cycle Eleena focused on what was ahead of her, but when night came her thoughts traveled back.

She thought of Gida.

Veradun’s arm tightened around her waist. So he was awake. He said nothing, and neither did Eleena. Slowly, in the soft quietness of his embrace, Eleena melted back into an empty sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Prompt: the Code of the Sith**

 

_Peace is a lie, there is only passion._

Veradun knew this truth long before the awakening of his dark power. There never had been a time in his life he knew peace. Unwanted, cast aside by his family, he only knew the life of his adoptive father. He was a cold man, distant, with more rules than words to give the son that wasn’t his. The house they shared felt like a cage.

_Through passion, I gain strength._

Veradun knew cages well. His adoptive father controlled many, and Veradun knew not all cages were the bars and glass within the menagerie. With his lessons and responsibilities and schooling and etiquette even time felt like a cage. It felt his only freedom was in the scenes he created for himself. In the solitude of his room, he found liberation in flimsiplast and charcoal, creating and recreating for himself everything that was out of his reach.. 

_Through strength, I gain power._

Veradun found sanctuary in his drawings. The empty days became bearable in the escape they brought. When he focused on his creations, Veradun almost didn’t feel alone...

_Through power, I gain victory._

The black bled into the white, and with each stroke his lines became neater. Shadows began to pool instead of falling stiff behind their figures. Perspective, depth, motion, lighting, through hours of sweating and criticizing and reworking emerged as sheet after sheet fell in sacrifice to perfection. 

_Through victory, my chains are broken._

From behind the dull backdrop of the perfect, studious Imperial son, he waited for his daily retreat. All fell to perfect routine until the day his drawings disappeared. They, “cluttered his room and mind,” and were ordered to be removed. And again Veradun was alone in the clean, bright cage of uniformity.

_The Force shall free me._


End file.
